NGO Letter to Clinton, 7 September 1996. US NGOs,
especially religious organizations, argue that UN has
insufficient power and influence to rally Burundi's
neighbors to prevent a repeat of the Rwandi catastrophe,
and so US military should act in its place.

By Jean Baptiste Kayigamba, InterPress Service, 11 June
1997. On July 25, 1996 an army coup brought ex-military ruler
Major Pierre Buyoya back into power and deposed Burundi
President Sylvestre Ntibantunganya. Ntibantunganya had
sought US protection from Hutu rebels.

By Amnesty International, 1 August
1997. Criticism of President Major Pierre Buyoya for the summary
execution of participants in killings following the assassination
of the first democratically elected president of Burundi,
Melchior Ndadaye, on 21 October 1993; there may be political
and ethnic motivations.

Inter Press Service, 9 December 1997. International arms
dealers are flooding Burundi with weapons, despite an
embargo, and tens of thousands of innocent non-combatants
have died. It names the United States as one important
supplier, although Washington officially ended assistance
in 1996.

BBC News, Thursday 16 July 1998. Parliament in Burundi has
been enlarged by forty seats, as part of reforms designed
to make the government more representative. Only the two
main parties—Frodebu and Uprona—were represented in
the previous parliament.

BBC News, 25 September 1999.The main opposition group in Burundi,
the National Council for the Defence of Democracy or CNDD, has
dismissed government allegations that they are working with
Rwandan militias.

An Analysis by Chris Simpson, IPS, 27 September 1999.
Escalating violence creating dozens of civilian casualties.
The war between a Tutsi-dominated government army and Hutu
rebels rumbles on. But the mediator-in-chief, former Tanzanian
President Julius Nyerere is falling victim to leukaemia.

BBS News, 12 January 2000. The Burundian President, Pierre Buyoya,
has replaced his defence minister, Colonel Alfred Mkurunziza,
by a military adviser to the president, Cyrille Ndayirukiye,
as part of a shuffle of over fiften other ministers.